World War II easily ranks as the bloodiest, deadliest, and most carnage-filled conflict in modern human history. Some estimates put the death toll at over 75 million people worldwide. That sobering number included approximately more than 20 million soldiers and over 40 million civilians. Waged literally worldwide, WWII touched nearly every corner of civilization while its conclusion caused massive celebrations within every country of the Allied powers. However, the war did not end synchronously. The Japanese, completely sure of their natural superiority, continued fighting for months after Germany surrendered on May 7th 1945. Here's a snapshot of World War II’s conclusion.

With the Japanese continuing to fight, America’s powers that be made the strategic decision to bomb two cities with recently tested atomic bombs. Their hope was to avoid a mass-scale invasion into Japan that would cost thousands of American lives. The last major battle took place on April 1, 1945. The brutal battle of Okinawa lasted 81 days of savage fighting, killing over 200,000 people combined, mostly Japanese troops and civilians.

To deliver the 9,700 pounds of atomic death, code-named “Little Boy,” the USS Indianapolis secretly traveled to the Northern Mariana Islands. Shortly after delivering their payload, the Indianapolis was sunk by Japanese submarines. 300 soldiers went down with the ship while another 900 drifted along waiting for rescue.

The rescue came on August 2nd, just a few days later but by that point, only 317 survivors remained. Endless shark attacks, dehydration, and salt poisoning claimed the lives of hundreds of soldiers. Their tale became etched in history when Quint told their harrowing tales in Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws:” “Eleven hundred men went into the water, 316 men came out and the sharks took the rest.”

Indianapolis crew member Harlan Twible recalled the traumatic attacks, “The sharks would pull them down and eat their extremities, and the rest of the body would bob to the surface.” Another crew member Tony King remembered the horror, “It wasn’t hard to be talked into things out there. So a group of us swam off, following the leader, not wanting to be left behind… There were so many sharks. So many. I’d see them swimming below me.”

U.S military chose Hiroshima and Nagasaki due to their military installation and a lack of prior damage from previous bombings. They nixed Kyoto because of its cultural significance as the country’s former capital. On August 6, as survivor Akiko Takakura remembered, “What I felt at that moment was that Hiroshima was entirely covered with only three colors. I remember red, black, and brown … but nothing else.” The death toll of those two bombings remains incalculable due to fatalities from radiation poisoning but the estimates are well over 300,000.

August 14th, 1945 was dubbed “Victory Over Japan Day” or “V-J Day.” Obviously, the massive war effort drained even headline writers. Nevertheless, on that momentous day President Truman announced the end of World War II and Emperor Hirohito of Japan informed his people the day after.

Naturally, it took weeks of politicking before the formal agreement was signed on September 2nd in Tokyo Bay. Aboard the USS Missouri, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu first signed the surrender before General Douglas MacArthur made his mark. MacArthur marked the historic signing with the words, “It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past.”

One of the most famous pictures from that day exhibited a man and woman kissing in New York City. It was published in Life magazine and became an historic snapshot. Funnily enough, the subjects didn’t know each other. A sailor, George Mendonsa, who was on a date with his future wife, became overwhelmed with joy at the ending of the war when he kissed the first person he saw. That woman was Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant and innocent bystander. As she said, “It wasn’t my choice to be kissed. The guy just came over and grabbed!”